Having been exposed for such a challenging experience in Yala park Mahinda for sure needed some spiritual break. You can see his breathtaking safari experience here. In the acceptable proximity from Tissa there is a religious centre of Kataragama. Why not to head there to get some release from the Yala experience?

The morning rain seemed to calm down and the clear sky appeared to take the ground for the remaining of the day so Mahinda took the brave decision.”Let’s go to the bus station, there should be some bus going to Kataragama”. You can imagine the bus station in the place like Tissa. You cannot be lost there. You cannot have much choices either.

Mahinda, as always has a bit of luck. There was a green fancy bus waiting there. The only one in this fascinating isolated piece of bus infrastructure. And guess what – just heading towards Kataragama. Mahinda was simply exploding with his load of fortune! He jumped into the bus and started to enjoy the music. You can imagine, by the way that all buses in Sri Lanka do not allow you to travel in silence. They are all ready to provide you with enough decibels all over you journey. Mahinda was so exited ( at the beginning ) with the lovely “umpa-umpa ” music when he entered the bus! In fact 15 minutes later his enthusiasm was a bit (dramatically) lower. The music was nice but for sure much exceeding the regular level of decibel tolerance. And the bus was absolutely green, everywhere.

“Here it is” Mahinda said with a bit of release. He got off the bus and landed in a kind of isolated piece of land. Kataragama welcome! Nothing special, indeed. Fortunately his mobile equipped with GPS confirmed that was the right place.

You can imagine that Kataragama is just the sacred place, nothing more, nothing less. You need to be a deeply religious person to really acknowledge that. Was Mahinda the person? He headed towards the temple sector following his GPS. Oh, he was so proud of himself – anybody offering his help to direct him had no chances at all. And many indeed did try: as soon as he left the bus Mahinda was surrounded by a horde of tuk-tuk drivers and qualified and certified guides. He proudly passed through a number of stalls with flowers and other things intended to increase the quality of offerings given to the temple gods. That was really impressive. You can imagine the number of pilgrims during the holidays, like Divali for instance.

Mahinda successfully passed through the stalls and reach the sacred river. This is the place where many (MANY) pilgrims take the spiritual ablution before entering the temple sector. They just go into the river to make the ritual of the ablution. Nothing wrong with that, there are even special shelters on the river bank to facilitate the clothes changing. Just to be precise: if you are a male if not please take the river bank on the other side of the bridge where there are no special facilities. The pilgrims, all of them are expected to take the ritual before heading to the temple for “puja”, means the evening (usually) offering celebration. But why, the hell there is a huge sign informing that there are crocodiles in the river which you need to be aware of??

Are the creatures informed well they should not go for the pilgrims taking their ablution ritual in the river? Not so sure. Looking in the internet Mahinda discovered some recent cases of crocodile attack in this place. Pilgrim or not, ablution or taking the bath-the creature did not care and took its chance.

Mahinda was strolling along the river waiting for sun going down – the puja takes place in the evening around 6pm. Suddenly an almost naked guy jumped out from the funny little hut. ” Hi, have you seen the crocs?”. That was a policeman taking his shower before the evening shift. The hut indeed was a kind of a shower place. Yes, the crocodiles in the river were quite often so the guy thought it was just interesting to mention this to the couple of visitors wandering along the river.

By the way, Mahinda recalled his unforgettable experience in the Yala National Park. (By the way, being so critical on Yala safari experience I need to say that Udawalawe National Park was really something different and worth to be recommended- please take a look here.) There, he had been looking desperately to see some representative of fauna. Here, just above his head, in the middle of the pilgrimage center the Sri Lankan Grey Hornbill was peacefully sitting on the wire. Yes, Mahinda recalled his Yala guide-driver to call him once: “Mister, hornbill, there in the bushes, photo photo please. Happy, Mister?” Now, Mahinda was really taking his time to observe the bird.

Finally, Mahinda entered the temple sector, as he called it. There were indeed a number of different temples. He would just name this place as a religious syncretism example.

Correct or no, difficult to judge – even recently there have been some examples of a violent abuse of the religious tolerance in Kataragama. However, the complex welcomes visitors with a number of Hindu temples together with a lovely green colored mosque.

After going through the sacred Hindu temple the visitors end at the foot of the huge Buddhist stupa.

In the evening the center place – the concentration of different Hindu temples – is absolutely vital. The offering ceremonies is full of energy and even for some visitors (tourists, observers, Mahinda?) is very interesting.

You can witness the ritual of coconuts breaking, dancing and singing, offerings etc. Funny thing, when Mahinda was standing close to the main Kataragama temple watching the people waiting with their offerings he saw the policemen guarding the temple entrance. That was the guy taking the shower and talking about the river crocodiles an hour or so before. They smiled each other and Mahinda was let inside the temple, despite the crowd. The world is so small, Mahinda thought philosophically…